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douglas said:
Yeah, it doesn't really make sense that it wouldn't be used right away. As for why scrolls of Wish aren't used instead, the manuals do have a slight discount compared to that - 27000 per point vs 28825 per Wish - and scrolls take just as long to make as any other magic item for their cost. Then again, you can make 5 scrolls of wish one at a time, building up xp between each, where the xp spent on making a manual or casting Wish directly has to be spent all at once. Hmm, this makes me wonder how the +5 manuals ever get made. You'd have to be 25th level to be able to have the required amount of experience without having enough to level up.
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Ah! I got it! Both the reason you might find +1 books and how the +5 versions could be made!
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SRD, Creating Magic Items
ADDING NEW ABILITIES
A creator can add new magical abilities to a magic item with no restrictions. The cost to do this is the same as if the item was not magical. Thus, a +1 longsword can be made into a +2 vorpal longsword, with the cost to create it being equal to that of a +2 vorpal sword minus the cost of a +1 sword.
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So you start by making a +1 Manual or Tome (Cost 1,250 gp + 5,100 XP), then you save it, and when you have more XP to spare, you upgrade it to a +2 ((2,500 gp + 10,200 XP)-(1,250 gp + 5,100 XP)=1,250 gp + 5,100 XP), and when you have more to spare, you upgrade it again to a +3 (upgrade from +2 to +3 costs 1,250 gp + 5,100 XP yet again), wash, rinse, repeat until +5.
So there is both a reason to make them (don't need to shell out 25,000 xp all at once) and a reason why they might hang around for a while (if you use the +3 Manual or Tome, you will have to start over to get a +4 or +5; if the creator is interrupted for some reason - it gets stolen, the creator dies before it's finished, or the creator goes into dire straights and it get sold - but seriously, how many 17th level casters will have that problem?)